In 1749 Sweden began as the first country in the world to keep reliable records of its population. The figures for Sweden after that year are exact but for the earlier years are they just estimates that gets more uncertain the further back in time they are.

(Sweden have two columns with alternative estimates)

Sweden have two columns with alternative estimates because different methods have been used, however both refer to Sweden within its present borders (those in purple are more likely). Denmark's two columns on the other hand refer to different territories; figures in purple = within Denmark's historical borders (i.e. also the Scanian lands and Schleswig), figures in blue = within Denmark's present borders. A more detailed discussion about these estimates are available in Swedish.

Iceland's population is believed to have varied between 40 000 and 60 000 from the tenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The figures for Denmark and Norway 1770 and 1800  refers to 1769 and 1801 respectively. Apart from these years are the Norwegian statistics before 1800 just estimates. Iceland's figures come from www.statice.is..

The tables below tell how many thousands of inhabitants each Swedish county had (called län in Swedish). Because the statistics come from several sources which do not refer to the same territories have different colours been used. The statistics in blue text are from International Historical Statistics 1750-1993 by B.R. Mitchell and refers to the counties within their historical borders, that is why there are no population figures for some counties that did not exist at the year in question. The statistics in green text are from Lennart Andersson Palm's book Folkmängden i Sveriges socknar och kommuner 1571-1991 and refers to the so called "Emigration counties", i.e. the county borders that existed during the larger part of this time period. The statistics before 1750 are however not based on official population statistics and are instead just estimates. The statistics in purple text are from SCB (the national bureau of statistics in Sweden), the figures for those counties that ceased to exist during the 90s are based on the combined population of the municipalities (kommuner), which those counties consisted of.

In the table above I have recalculated the official statistics from SCB so that they do not reflect the counties' 1997-2007 border changes of the counties. Apart from the mergers which I have already mentioned, Habo and Mullsjö municipalities were transferred from Skaraborg to Jönköping 1998, and Heby municipality went from Västmanland to Uppsala 2007. The purpose with these recalculations is to ease comparisons with the older statistics But the correct statistics for these counties are shown below: